Great People, But Unfortunate Decline in Culture
Pros
One of the reasons I remained at Kroger for so long was because of the people relationships. Many of the people I worked with in the corporate environment were good people.
Cons
The unfortunate part of Kroger was the only way to advance was to leave your department. It was almost impossible to be promoted within your own department, because HR did not have the creativity or originality of thought to figure out how to promote an individual without having a completely new position description. It was the most ludicrous situation they created for managers, because they would lose talent to other departments when people became frustrated they couldn't get promoted for their performance. When I left, they also announced increasing the mandatory number of days in office to FOUR days, which for many individuals in the IT group was highly unrealistic and unneeded. We had already proven we did not need to be in the office that often, and it was also unproductive for us to be in the office that often. The only reason for us to be in the office was for Kroger to receive the tax incentives they needed from the city of Cincinnati - in other words butts in seats.
